The Creation of a Universe

Note: an updated version of this essay is available in the eBook, The Creation of a Universe –– Thoughts on Origins, Consciousness and the Geometry of Existence."

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Introduction

"What is the origin of the universe and how was it created?"

Some cosmologists suggest that all of the energy in the universe originated in a very small region of space called a singularity; and then, suddenly, there was a gigantic explosion which propelled that energy outwards. This theory and its offshoots is called the Big Bang theory.

The Law of Conservation of Energy, however, states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. If that is so, then all of the energy in the entire universe must have existed, without reduction or increase, since the beginning of time. This is clearly illogical!

To get around this problem, some suggest that the building blocks of the physical world are one–dimensional extended objects called strings. You may have heard of this, it's called string theory. A string is a very tiny amount of energy that vibrates at specific frequencies. In string theory, the necessity for singularities, and even particles, are avoided.

Others say that our universe may have been created from another, older universe.

It is also suggested that the universe originated in some sort of undetectable quantum excitement at unimaginably small scales. Nobel physicist John Wheeler, back in the 1960's, imagined that space–time has a foaminess to it, with sudden changes that could create infinitesimal wormholes, and quantum black holes that evaporate almost instantaneously. All of this activity would be far below the level of detection of even our most powerful scientific instruments.

This scientific speculation is fascinating, but no matter how deeply we take this process into the microcosmic world, or how far back we go in time, we butt up against the fundamental quandary that it is impossible to create something from nothing. At some point, we have to ask "How did the first something get created?"

The idea that the universe originated in some sort of infinitely small, undetectable process is valuable, however, because it blurs the boundary between matter and a pure creative potential. Such ideas bring us closer and closer to an undetectable and invisible Creative Principle.

Professor Krishnamurthy says, 'The universe was created... by transformation of something which was latent before that. Creation is just a manifestation of what was unmanifest before'".* Something unmanifest would also be invisible to our senses. So in quantum physics we have, almost, a meeting of the minds between science and metaphysics.

Science and religion are not so far apart. The Bible tells us, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was God." What does that mean? It expresses the idea that the universe began as a fundamental vibration, a Word, which came forth from a higher, non–physical consciousness. This primordial vibration of the universe has been called the OM, or AUM, in eastern thought. Quantum physics acknowledges that the observable universe and the particles in it are just an excitation of an underlying quantum field. In string theory, matter and energy are the manifestation of vibrating loops of string.

Common to all of these concepts is the idea that the material universe is fundamentally vibrational in nature. This idea leads to a powerful new way of looking at the universe, and life, which we have detailed in other essays. The point is that prior to the arising of a quantum field, or a vibration, or anything material, is the Creative Principle.

Because matter cannot create matter, we must assume that a Creative Principle is responsible for the origin of the physical universe. We will see later on that there is no contradiction whatsoever between this concept and evolution. We will see that as thought evolves from the simple to the complex, evolution is mirrored into the physical universe.

We will see that there is really no separation between spirit and matter. The two are aspects of the same unifying Principle. (In my movie, "The Unity of Spirit and Matter," I address this question in a multimedia format).

This approach has been acknowledged as valid by thinkers throughout the centuries, from the ancient Hindu scriptures called the Vedas, to the panpsychism of Alfred North Whitehead, to the aether theorists in today's frontier physics. Because there is no way to prove that a non–physical, creative principle exists (such a non–physical principle is, by definition, forever beyond the range of scientific measurement), we must necessarily go beyond the standard scientific model of the universe and into the realm of speculation. But I promise you that this will be a fun and exciting journey!

Using the spirit–mind–body approach, life becomes simplified. We say simply that the animating principle of the universe is the Source behind the activity of all life everywhere. When the consciousness of the flower departs, it wilts. When the consciousness of the human being departs, the body dies and it begins to decay.

I am proceeding in this way because otherwise, our reasoning becomes circular; we say that the universe was created in a singularity, but then we ask where the singularity came from and we go round and round, assuming hierarchies of beings or energies at levels that are logically prior. So we just state that consciousness existed before the universe began, and was responsible somehow for its creation.

How that occurred is the subject of this essay.

I am going to say that there is a difference between consciousness and what I call a pure potential. A pure potential, which I call Pure Awareness, is the First Cause; consciousness is the creative and animating principle associated with the physical world.

Sri Nisargadatta says, "That which is prior to consciousness is the Absolute." Nisargadatta also says, "The original state prior to Consciousness cannot be described; one can only be That." In other words, the Absolute is a state prior to the arising of consciousness, and the physical universe, itself!

In this way we can define levels of consciousness in it's association with physical bodies and the material universe; for example, we can say that a human being has a far broader view of the universe than a dung beetle, because the senses of the beetle's body are more limited than ours. We will explain and elaborate on this idea as we go along.

So with that, let's begin!

Quality vs. Quantity

Let's begin our discussion of consciousness by looking at the difference between a quality and a quantity. A quality we will define as a pure potential, a causative influence which has unlimited scope.

In the physical universe we can observe the qualities people exhibit. We say: 'He has character' or 'She is full of life'. These are reasonable statements but they cannot be accurately quantified. If asked 'why do you say she is full of life?' we may observe that she is always cheerful, has lots of energy, and participates in many different activities. But it would be hard to write a mathematical equation to describe the quality called 'full of life'. The reason qualities cannot be accurately specified is because they stem from consciousness itself, which may change its mind at any time and so exhibit entirely different characteristics. We will say that a pure quality cannot be measured or observed, and that only the creations of the quality exist. In the essay below I will describe how this Pure Quality can create a universe and physical bodies to experience in that universe.

A quantity is much easier to understand: it is something observable. We see quantities all around us, the chair we are sitting in, the house we live in, the sun, moon and stars and everything else we can perceive upon our planet and in our universe.

A quantity is something that exists.

A pure quality does not exist, but is the originator of all that exists.

Everything we see around us is the creation of consciousness, which is the ultimate, pure quality, unmeasurable itself, but the creator of all that is measurable. In this chapter I will attempt to explain how consciousness itself comes into being, and how a pure quality can create a universe in which to experience. The reason for doing so is to lay some groundwork, in order to explain the workings of the Universal Operating System. Many of us have been taught that the universe is a cold and uncaring place, but I will try to show that, fundamentally, the universe has been designed to be a joyful and wonderful place in which to experience!

Background

"The original state prior to Consciousness cannot be described; one can only be That." In other words, consciousness itself comes forth from the decision to BE. The Absolute, as Krishnamurthy says, is something latent and unmanifest. Consciousness, as defined here, is the state of self–awareness. Self awareness arises from the Absolute by what I refer to as the Divine Impulse. This can be likened to the closing of a circle in two dimensions, or the formation of a torus in 3 dimensions. Before the circle closes, there is no energy flow, no direction, no growth; we might say that we have a vibrating string, as in string theory, but nothing completed. After the circle closes, however, there exists something that is self–fulfilled, and complete, but which can expand and evolve. Similarly, a torus is self–referencing; energy and information flows out and feeds back into it, allowing the torus to grow and evolve, and to change the way it perceives the universe, and itself. The key, as Nisargadatta says, is BE. BEing is what allows the Absolute to gain awareness from a particular point of view; the assumption of a state of being defines and focuses perception. This is only possible after the closing of the circle. Now we have consciousness, a self–aware aspect of the Absolute, capable of creating. learning, and evolving.

Imagine now that you are an eternal being, complete within yourself. There is no universe yet, so there are no planets or galaxies, no matter and energy, only a feeling of joy and perfect bliss. Since there is nothing to look at, you are aware of nothing outside yourself, yet you feel a sense of complete fulfillment. Sort of like floating on a completely calm ocean in a perfect state of serenity.

We begin this way because it is illogical to suppose that the animating principle which created the universe is psychotic, or negative. Only a psychotic would want to live a life of eternity feeling lousy; and in fact, only a nutcase wouldn't want to feel as wonderful as it could. So we give the Creator of All the benefit of the doubt, and assume he/she feels pretty good about himself/herself. We begin by assuming that the inherent nature of this eternal quality is one of perfection and infinite well being.

If you were such an eternal being, perfect within yourself, why would you want to create a universe in the first place? Well, the basic motivation for the creation of anything, I think, is to have fun with it. If the creator is an infinite being, then it needs an infinite universe in which to experience (the creator has no gender, bodies have gender). It's the difference between imagining something and actually living it. We will see later on that the beginning of the universe occurred as the result of a profound idea that had never before occurred to the creator, and that the unfolding of the universe is a continuing series of new and evolving concepts.

We will say that the creator was aware before there was anything to perceive, before there was matter and energy. We say metaphorically that the creator, not being satisfied with its dream, had the desire to know Itself, and so the creator manufactured a universe in which to explore the infinite aspects of Itself. This is where we begin our discussion, before the existence of any universe, before even the first atom!

Because nothing exists, we must dispense with words like "exist" "is" and "have." We can, however, use "be," which implies a pure creative potential that we will refer to as Pure Awareness, or Universal Consciousness.

Who or what is the creator of the universe, and what is the relationship between the creator and a human being, or any life form? Each and every human being, each and every life form, is an aspect or extension of the creative principle, the creator of the universe.

Let us, therefore, not assume that the creator is a being separate from you. If you are uncomfortable with the idea that you could be a creator being, then visualize yourself as an aspect, or small portion, of a vastly bigger and grander being. I believe that we have gotten into trouble by holding the concept of God as completely separate from us, for if God created everything in the world, and we see God as something separate, then we also consider all things outside of ourselves as separate from us. This leads to the idea that the whole world is an alien place. It leads to an attitude of 'me against the world'. If we can look at everything in our world as something connected to us, as part of us, then we can stop being victims of life and begin to live life more joyfully.

The Short Answer

Truth is simple and powerful, but it is sometimes unsatisfying! We could say, truthfully, that the creator is eternal and made everything in existence, and our discussion would be over. Because that is the way it appears to an eternal being. If we ask, 'well, who or what created this eternal consciousness?' the reply is simply that an eternal being cannot be created, it has always been and will always be; that an eternal being is outside all linear concepts of time.

An eternal being is not an intellectual concept. In my study of philosophy and religion I often came across the idea that the creator is an intellectual being, a vast and infinite Mind. Of course, there are plenty of descriptions of God as an all–loving being, but often in the translation God is depicted as more of a mental than a feeling being. Of course the creator of the universe is an intellectual genius, but that is not his/her only attribute! I believe that the quintessential aspect of the creator must be love, joy, and bliss, for I have observed that the only reason anybody or any life form does anything is because it feels good. This desire for feeling good must be the primary motivation for all life, and so the creator must be, ultimately, a being that feels very, very good indeed. It would be pretty awful to believe that the creator is eternal, and grouchy! I believe that the creator is a being who is so full of love and joy that such a question (who created consciousness) is a meaningless intellectual exercise. If the creator were asked such a question, the creator might reply 'know thyself, and the truth shall set you free.' The profound questions proposed by the intellect can be answered by simply feeling the energy of life surging within you. This energy is so positive, so wonderful, that when fully connected to it, the profound questions of life proposed by the intellect seem almost childish.

But this sort of argument either avoids the question, or gives a circular answer (an eternal being has always existed). Accurately circular, for consciousness by its very nature is self–reflexive, which means, it has the ability to modify or change itself. Nevertheless, it is saying, 'God, or consciousness, created itself' which leaves me feeling that the question has not really been answered. So in an attempt to explain things more understandably from the point of view of a human being immersed in the flow of time, lets create artificial hierarchies of awareness. The human mind understands ideas better if they are compartmentalized; even if it is not entirely accurate to do so.

Hierarchies of Awareness

First in our artificial hierarchy we define Pure Awareness. Some people like the word God better, but because God has religious overtones, I prefer to use the term Pure Awareness, or Creator. I want this discussion to be inclusive of all beliefs. Pure Awareness is aware, but has no conception of anything outside of itself. Those who have had near–death–experiences describe a state of bliss in which thought is not present –– this is the state or condition of Pure Awareness. Pure Awareness is a potential, a pure quality, which will have, as we shall see, the capability of creating something for it to perceive outside of itself. There are no universes as yet, there is Nothing, but a Nothing with the potential power to create worlds. Geometrically we can describe pure awareness as a point, but a point which encompasses all–there–is.

Lets talk a little bit about a pure potential being a Nothing. Since we don't have any matter or energy yet, we don't have anything to look at. Nothing exists. So it is reasonable to suppose that this pure potential must be Nothing, but this is far from the truth. The Quality–which–creates–all is more accurately described as an Everything, because that is what it feels like. In other words, we are not talking about a Nothing which creates the things of existence, because this always leads to an intellectual contradiction. We want to think about the basic nature of Pure Awareness, or the Creator of the universe, as an Everything which is, in itself, completely and utterly fulfilled and is the very definition of well being. So then we can say that the universe was created from an Everything, which is mimicking itself in creating the infinite vastness of a universe. In other words, it is true that a Nothing cannot create a something, just as a person who has never before played the piano cannot play like Horowitz, just as a person who is feeling angry cannot, at the same time, create a work of beauty. In order to create a work of beauty, you have to already be in an inspired place of feeling beautiful. In order to create an infinite and beautiful universe to play in, you must already be infinite and beautiful!

If you have ever felt a rush of love or joy, you are feeling the inherent quality of who you are at the very roots of your being. You are feeling the way Pure Awareness, the Creator–of–all, feels in every instant. This feeling is one of perfect fulfillment, complete understanding, exhilaration, and knowing of self as eternal, divine, and infinite. This is what it feels like to be a pure quality. So the pure potential/Creator which the intellect describes as a Nothing is really a wonderful, delicious thing. There is no Great Void out of which the stuff of existence comes forth. This concept always frightened me, because it says the ultimate future of all consciousness in the universe is one of non–awareness. I always pictured myself as being snuffed out, like a candle flame. But I have discovered that the Nothing idea isn't true. The circle of creation, of life, begins and ends with complete and utter well being. I am calling this feeling of well being the ultimate nature, quality, or property of all consciousness everywhere in any universe. If you have never felt the power of this wonderful energy, then what I'm saying will not be real to you at all. It may even seem ridiculous. But I am assuming that every human being reading this, no matter how troubled, can remember a time in his or her life, even if for only an instant, when you felt this way. This wonderful feeling is who you are at the very core of your being.

All right, nowback to our artificial hierarchies. Below pure awareness, or pure potential (quality), is consciousness. My dictionary defines consciousness as '1. The state of being conscious; awareness, especially of what is happening around one.' (Webster's New World Dictionary, College Edition, 1962). This definition implies that there is already some stuff around you to observe. So we will define consciousness as the scope of perception of things that already exist. We will say that pure awareness devised consciousness as a way to experience in a universe which it created (more on this forthcoming).

For example, we could say that a guy up in an airplane would have a broader scope of consciousness than a cat who might be aware of the house in which it lives. So we say that consciousness has the ability to perceive more, or less, of the totality of existence. We may then define levels of consciousness based upon how much of existence a being is able to perceive. Geometrically we can describe consciousness as a circle, or, three dimensionally, a sphere.

The Creation of a Universe

Pure Awareness is awareness without differentiation. This is a concept impossible to describe in language, for language implies communication and communication implies existence, and Pure Awareness does not exist, for it is pure potential; a quality, not a quantity.

We will say, simply, that Pure Awareness knows itself fully and completely. But it knows of nothing outside of itself. We as human beings, perceiving in a reality of time and space, cannot describe Pure Awareness in language other than to say it is pure potential, the creator of all things. It is an everything–within–itself, but a not–anything–outside–of–itself, yet it is the potential creator of everything. This is what Nisargadatta meant when he said that it is impossible to describe the state prior to the arising of Consciousness. Let's say that pure awareness feels and knows itself to be perfection within itself.

Space

A universe must have space, whether physical or conceptual. The creation of universes starts first with a thought. By a thought, I mean the idea of something that is different from the thinker. This process of thinking a thought which is different from the thinker, automatically creates something perceivable. We may call it a particle or quanta of energy, because it is the quintessential fundamental particle in the universe. All of existence will subsequently proceed from combinations and interaction of these quanta. The thought is something discrete, and completely separate from the thinker. In other words, the very act of thinking a thought inherently creates the space in which it exists. The static, or Pure Awareness, thus breaks through the barrier between NOT and IS. We will see that when this happens, Pure Awareness becomes self–aware. This is a logical outcome of the fact that the First Thought is something separate from the thinker of the thought. Therefore, the thinker becomes aware of Itself as being different or separate from Its creation.

Once one thinker created a thought, a universe was born, for there is now a point outside of itself to observe. The First Thought was an explosion of cognition for the thinker. At once the First Thought brought about the ideas of creation, existence, separateness, otherness, space, distance, communication, potential, actual ('real'), identification. The First Thought was shocking and exhilarating to the thinker, for it contained within it the concept of something NOT[the thinker]. Heretofore all was the thinker. It is impossible to explain the explosive significance to a being when this is first realized. The concept of existence is a revelation.

A

A–––––––––––––––––––––––––B
Figure 1.

First there is A, pure awareness, but nothing outside of it. Pure awareness is complete within itself. We say that the state of Pure Awareness is NOT. That is because there is, as yet, no Is–ness, because nothing exists. This is a state of being outside of time and space. We may geometrically represent A, the creative potential, as a point.

When A has a thought, by conceiving that there may be something other–than–itself, it creates a space between A and B. As this process is repeated, a universe may come into being. The second portion of Figure 1 demonstrates the idea of IS, or existence. Geometrically, A can now conceive of the property of distance, and the line. (You might argue that since A is a pure potential and IS NOT, A is not in space at all, and thus there cannot be a line between A (a nothing) and B (a something). However, as the creative potential creates more and more points, A quite easily discovers that between any two points, a line can be drawn)

A does not really 'exist', before the First Thought, because it is pure potential. After the First Thought, B is created, and so pure awareness can perceive itself as different from B and thus conceive of itself as existing, separate from B.

Thus is born the very important concept of differentiation.

Here we artificially say that 'B exists' because it is different from A. We artificially distinguish between A and B by declaring that A is a pure potential and that B exists, but that is really a silly thing to say, is it not? B is a creation of A, is intimately bound up with A, is a product of A, IS A, but we have to admit that B MUST be different from A in some way, otherwise A could not see it as something different.

A can look out and perceive the space between it and B, so it concludes that B must be different from itself. So B is really not A! Here is a gigantic intellectual contradiction. B is A and at the same time, is different from A.

B is something discernible to A. In this sense, it is "physical." Physical just means, perceivable. I like to call B, the thought of A, a packet or quanta of energy, but really, the thinker of the thought IS the thought, because a quintessential part of it is in the thought. The thinker of the thought totally, completely, and utterly understands the thought it just created –– they are both joined at the hip, so to speak. Moreover, since A is conscious, and B is the thought which proceeded from A, then B must also be conscious.

What do we call B to distinguish it from A? We call B the thought of A, the pure potential, and say that B exists, and say that B is a little tiny packet or quanta of energy. These are artificial distinctions of course, but we have to have some way of describing the difference between B, the creation, and A, the creator.**

In this conception, all thought is conscious, and all things physical are composed of thought. We are describing the ultimate unity of all things in existence, and we are also describing the separateness of everything in existence. Within all things, in other words, is a sort of built–in duality.

How does the First Thought come into being? Well, imagine there is only you, and nothing outside of you, and you are complete–within–yourself, existing in perfect bliss. How would you even conceive of something different from what you are experiencing? You couldn't, for you have never experienced anything other than perfect bliss and sameness. You have never seen anything which you considered separate from yourself. There has never been a change from your experience of perfect bliss. The First Thought comes as an explosion of inspiration within your entire being: 'what if there was something that was not me'? BOOM! This idea must now exist in a separate space from you, for its quintessential nature is otherness. It can't be you, for it's very nature is not you. As soon as you conceived the idea of not–me, you created something outside of yourself. It is an explosion of inspiration, or creation, and it automatically puts a space between you and it. How and Why this occurs, of course, is the Great Mystery: what is the impetus that inspires a pure potential to become conscious of itself, or selfaware? Let us just say that the process is invisible to any being who has not achieved the awareness level of Pure Awareness.

So what is space? Space is just a differentiation between one thing and another. In order to have a thing, there must be a not–that–thing to compare it to. For example, look at a white canvas. In order to have something to see, you have to take a brush and put another color on it!

However, the space between A and B is not empty, for it contains the consciousness of the thinker. In other words, A knows exactly where B is, and so the space which separates it from the thing it created is also completely known to A. In other words, there is a little bit of the awareness of A in the space separating it and B. So space can't be an empty nothing, for space is a creation of the thinker and is bound up utterly with the thinker. This is the origin of the idea of the ether. Space just serves to differentiate the thinker from what it has created, otherwise the created thing could not exist independently. The idea that space is filled with the energy of consciousness is, I think, the reason we can sometimes communicate telepathically. I remember a time when, in my business, I received a contract approval before I was actually notified. I just KNEW that the client had chosen my proposal over all of the others, and I could tell you the exact moment of its occurrence. In order for communication over long distances to occur instantaneously, there must be some instantaneous medium in which it can take place. That medium is a postulated universe–wide field of consciousness brought about by the thoughts of the creator (us).

The idea that space is nothing leads to the concept of a cold, lifeless universe where life randomly and accidentally formed. This idea has always been scary to me, but now we can see that space is filled with the energy of consciousness, and only serves to differentiate one thing from another. Space is conscious, and so is everything in the universe! The energy of consciousness was called by the ancients prana, or chi. In this book, we will call it life force energy, or source energy. Source energy is a good term, for it implies that everything that exists comes forth from it. This energy is pure and positive, because the Creator of the thought is pure and positive. (One might say that if space is so positive, then try going out of a spaceship without a suit, but at this point physical bodies and planets have not yet been created. The creation of planets and bodies comes along later in the building of a universe. Being in a physical body is a free will choice to severely limit awareness in order to increase contrast and intensity of experience. More on this later)

Time

The creation of the First Thought leads the thinker to the conception of time, for the thinker understands that there is a condition of itself only, and there is also a condition of itself and B. This leads to the idea of 'now', and 'then', or 'before' and 'after'. The thinker creates more particles and observes that each of them move relative to the others. The thinker ponders and thinks, Before, B was HERE, and now it is HERE. B now has a completely different relationship to the other particles than it did before. The creator understands that movement creates time and a completely different relationship between each of the particles, and that that relationship is changing dynamically.

Therefore, the thinking of thought(s) different from the thinker not only leads to the creation of space, but also time. This idea is so exciting to pure awareness because it can now conceive of different points in space/time and different structural arrangements of that which has already been created, and the concept of being able to perceive all that it has created from infinitely many points of view. Thus was the subject of geometry born. Geometry is the first discipline in any universe because in order to create a well ordered universe one must necessarily know how everything fits together, and have a defined relationship between one thing and another. Otherwise there is just random chaos. The only idea that is missing from our present study of geometry is consciousness itself.

This process is also the birth of the intellect. The intellect requires data in order to do its work, and the creation of more and more quantities gives the intellect a lot more to look at and analyze.

Existence

Existence is a product of Pure Awareness, for it was created by Pure Awareness beginning with the First Thought. The First Thought leads the thinker to the awareness of being aware. The creation of the thinker, an otherness (B), brings about realization–of–self. Self–awareness is the awareness of being aware of the thinker as Creator. Before the First Thought there was simply awareness, after the First Thought there is the idea of self–and–other. The Creator as awareness–of–awareness is Pure Awareness with the explosive realization of self and other–ness.

Before the realization of Self there was simply undifferentiated awareness, a feeling of bliss and fulfillment. After the First Thought there was realization of Self, brought about by the observation of something outside of itself.

All of the thoughts of Pure Awareness are themselves conscious, so each of them has the ability to combine in agreement with each other to form different structures. The building blocks of matter and energy are the product of the thinker, which come together concurrently, guided by their awareness in tandem with the creator of all.

Why is this so important? Because all of us, as aspects of the Creator, are complete within ourselves! So often we look outside for the validation, or the missing pieces, which are inside all along. In other words, what good does it do to look for confirmation of who we are in others or in the physical universe? Ultimately we are all little 'pieces' of Pure Awareness, and when we are not into self–denial and self–limiting thought we can FEEL the perfection which the thinker felt before he/she created the First Thought! The idea that a pure potential created the universe is exciting because it means that anything that is aware is an aspect of this infinite, positive awareness. It means that each one of us is pure and positive at our very core, and that we were aware even before the creation of the universe.

Science And Something From Nothing

Now of course what we have said here is the exact opposite of what a scientist or a cosmologist would regard as truthful. A scientist would say that the Law of Conservation of Energy makes it impossible for energy to be created or destroyed. That is why some scientists postulate a Big Bang for the origin of the universe. Because energy can't be created, all of the energy in the universe must have been in existence from the beginning of time, just squeezed into itself, in an impossibly small point called a singularity. In both cases we have an intellectual contradiction, for we might ask the cosmologist where the energy in the singularity came from. But we have not done much better, for we have talked about a pure potential which can create something out of nothing! We have gotten around this by defining a quanta that exists on an unimaginably small scale, and which straddles an amorphous, etheric boundary between NOT and IS.

We have (in the footnote below) simply assigned a mapping from a virtual state of consciousness into the physical universe without explaining how it happens. That reminds me of the cartoon in which two scientists are staring at a set of equations, one on the left and the result on the right. In the middle is written and then a miracle occurs. The miracle is the animating principle, which has the capability of creation.

I like the idea of the universe coming into being and evolving bit by bit, rather than all at once. I have presented the creation of the universe the way I have, because I don't think something could be created all at once which could have the capability of evolving into the infinite and well ordered universe we see about us. I know that whenever I create something, it usually involves a lot of trial and error! Of course we could admit the possibility of a Supreme Creator who knew every little thing about the universe from the beginning of time until the end of time before it was even brought forth, but this explanation is even more unsatisfactory; for if the Supreme Creator knew every single event and experience beforehand, It would have no motivation to create. The impetus for creation is always the making and experiencing of something new and different! Thats what makes the creative process fun and exciting! Therefore, we will say in this book that the universe wasn't created all at once, but gradually unfolded as we went along. We will say that the universe evolved and has gotten more and more sophisticated as time went on, and that the animating intelligence behind all of it is Pure Awareness. And that the ultimate nature of the universe is positive, because the Creator of the universe is positive.

When we say "The Creator of the universe is positive", we're on pretty solid ground, for just about every religion on the planet has, at its core, this very idea.

Knowing

The quintessential quality of Pure Awareness is knowing. There is the desire or inclination of Pure Awareness to understand itself in a particular way. From this knowing, there is an orientation to BE, and from this beingness proceeds thought, and from thought, existence (matter and energy) comes forth. And from existence comes experience. Before the creation of the universe, experience was not possible, for experience involves interaction with others. Experience is the difference between theory and practice; between knowing something theoretically, and having it hit you in the face. When the creator discovered the possibilities of experience, it was all over. It decided to know Itself in all possible ways, which is to say, in an infinity of ways. And since it is impossible to ever achieve infinity, there is never an end to different ways of experiencing. This means there is never an end to fun and excitement!

Knowing is a disposition to BE, from which thought is emanated. All thought proceeds from an assumed beingness. And all action is preceded by thought. For example, a person might want to know what it is like to experience being a pilot. First he assumes the beingness of one who can learn to fly airplanes. In other words, you have to BE something before you can DO it. You have to have the idea of it, before you can start. The better he is at assuming this beingness, the faster he will learn. He takes flying lessons and becomes a certified small aircraft pilot. Now he can EXPERIENCE what it is like to be a pilot. He can now KNOW himself as a pilot much better than if he just said to himself 'yeah I could learn to fly if I really wanted to'. When his fanny hits that seat as he pulls his plane off the ground, he is experiencing something on a fundamentally deeper level. This knowing of himself as a pilot could be taken to more intense levels. He could increase his training and become an airline pilot, or join the military and take combat flight training. He might even find himself in a war, battling another pilot in an aircraft duel.

All experience begins from Pure Awareness and it's desire to know itself. When we describe the creator of the universe, we say that the creator knows what It is doing. On earth, we get discouraged when something does not happen as we would like, but it would be a mistake to assign this negative behavior to the creator! On earth, there is exaggerated contrast. We see horrendous things around us that we would never in a million years participate in, but the creator experiences no such contrast. The creator of the universe, through individually incarnated beings, brings forth thoughts and experiences activities that are an intimate and cherished part of itself, so the Creator of the universe experiences only pleasure in whatever he/she creates.

Consciousness

Consciousness is Pure Awareness temporarily associated with a vehicle of perception: a body. The senses of the body are attuned to a greater or lesser portion of the universal bandwidth. Clearly, a being can only be aware of that which it is aware. A body is designed to limit, focus, and intensify perception and experience.

After Pure Awareness has created a thought which it can see and feel and know that the thought is different from itself it decides to create more thoughts, and more thoughts, and more thoughts. Why does it do this? Because it is fun!! The excitement of realizing that it can create, and the endless and infinite possibilities and combinations of thought, brings the thinker to a desire to see what it can do––how complex and beautiful can it design with the building blocks it has created? All of this is happening at the speed of thought, which is practically infinite. The speed of thought makes the speed of light look very slow indeed. Since each thought is conscious, everything in existence is responsive to the thoughts and desires of the thinker/creator. Soon there is an explosion of form and the observation of those forms leads to new ideas for more thought/creation, so in no time (well, 16 billion years or so!) a pretty sophisticated universe can come into existence. (Creating a universe is no different from the creative process of any individual person. As incarnated human beings, we are all aspects or extensions of the creator of the universe. Our own creative process mirrors that of the creator–of–all).

Now there is lots of stuff to play around with, but although we can see and play with what we have created, we would really like to get in there and experience it! It is like having a big construction set and being able to build beautiful buildings and complex structures, but having no way to actually be IN the things you have created. Often, as a child, I just wished I could walk in one of the buildings I made with my erector set. My sister had a big doll house with lots of rooms. She would often want to BE the doll for a while!

Well, this is what happens to Pure Awareness once it begins to create a beautiful universe. It wants to participate within the universe it has created. So it makes little 'dolls' within which it can place its awareness. These dolls can just be floating clouds of energy, with broad awareness, or more compact and tightly focused with limited awareness, like our human bodies. This is how the Creator of All can have lots of different experiences.

In order to see how a nonphysical Creative Principle can have different personalities, consider that Pure Awareness has just created four thoughts, B, C, D, and E.

Pure Awareness (A) has the ability to BE at any of these points and perceive through each of them. When it does so, A consciously limits it's perception of the universe. A notices that depending upon which points it perceives through, he sees things differently! For example, his universe looks quite different when he is at E than it does when he is at B! This fascinates the creator, for it understands that by limiting its awareness through a physical vehicle it gains a different viewpoint, or perspective. This occurs because it literally sees things from a different point in space/time. A eventually discovers that if it perceives EXCLUSIVELY through one of these points, it develops a personality. A personality develops when one perceives uniquely through a separate point of perception.

Consciousness is limited perception through a physical vehicle that has built–in (limited) sensors that are able to perceive the universe from a particular vantage point. The human eye, for example, can only perceive a tiny fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum, from about 4 x 10^14 vibrations per second, to about 7.5 x 10^14 vibrations per second. This is an extremely small portion of the total vibrational spectrum.

Therefore the human being has a very limited view of the universe indeed! But of course, the human experience has been designed that way. The process of incarnation is the decision of Pure Awareness to perceive only through the sensors of the physical vehicle. As Pure Awareness incarnates over and over in an infinite variety of physical vehicles and environments, It develops an infinite number of viewpoints, or aspects, of Itself. Each incarnation strengthens these individual aspects, and pretty soon, the Creator has subdivided Itself into more and more unique beings who each have different attitudes and opinions! The Creator is pleased, for this is just what It intended. Just as someone can play a game and assume a different beingness for the game, so too does Pure Awareness generate different personalities within Itself. The good thing is that the One never loses track of Its aspects! The One never suffers from multiple personality disorder! Being beyond space and time and limitation, It celebrates that which It has created. As the AllThatIs evolves, the Creator grows more and more magnificent to Itself

There are levels of physicality, which is to say, ways to perceive. The earth experience is a very "dense" physical experience. Upon transition out of the body, a being returns to Native State, a postulated existence wherein a conscious personality assumes a broader awareness of Itself and Universal Consciousness on a higher, or less dense, plane of existence. These planes of existence continue "upwards" until a being "merges" with Pure Awareness. How this occurs is not possible to describe in language. Only those who have had near death experiences have any idea how this feels.

Because each body must occupy a unique point in space, it will view or perceive from a different perspective. A being will, therefore, during the period of incarnation, always experience from a unique point of view. This unique perspective, as we said before, is the origin of personality. Each vehicle of perception is designed to be aware of more, or less, of all–that–is, depending upon the design of its sensory equipment. The more of existence it can perceive, the broader it's awareness. The less of existence it can perceive, the more focused and limited is its perspective. So we can define levels of consciousness based upon how narrowly focused a being is, and what the sensory equipment of that consciousness is able to look at. For example, a beetle may perceive less of all–that–is because it is so narrowly focused into its little beetle body, a human being may perceive more of all–that–is because it's sensory equipment is arranged to be able to look at more of the universe. A being without a human body may be even more broadly aware, since its sensory equipment is not limited to the senses that come with the human body. So we define consciousness as pure awareness perceiving through the senses of a body. Since there are lots and lots of physical vehicles through which to perceive (animals, plants, onecelled amoebas, etc.) there are lots of ways in which to perceive and experience the universe! In this way, consciousness is limited in its awareness to that which it can perceive through the sensors of the body it is associated with.

In that sense, consciousness is itself an intelligent arrangement of thought, for consciousness, stuck in its vehicle of perception, will have its thought patterns primarily limited to, and directed by, that which it can perceive through the physical vehicle. Consciousness has, by definition –– at least in a very "dense" plane of existence like earth –– difficulty perceiving outside of the sensory range of the physical body. Of course, it is entirely possible to do so, and many claim psychic or intuitive powers, but a physical experience such as a human lifetime is designed to severely limit and intensify perception and experience. With the understanding that consciousness is actually a creative potential temporarily experiencing through a physical vehicle, it is now possible to dispense with the distinction between Pure Awareness and consciousness. We can refer to consciousness simply as the awareness of any being.

Because matter and energy are ultimately composed of thought, matter and energy must be responsive to thought, and indeed, scientific experiments have shown that the thoughts or intentions of an experimenter can have an effect on the outcome of an experiment.

How Is A Thought Conscious?

We have been claiming that a thought is conscious, but how to show this? Perform the following experiment: Turn to another page. Think the thought, 'Hi there', and place it on the page in front of you. Put the book down, then pick it up and flip back to the page where you placed the thought. Did you pick up on it? Thoughts are conscious! I do this all the time. If I have to take something with me first thing in the morning, I put a thought on the door before I go to bed (while I am still conscious!). When I stumble out the door to go to work, I invariably pick up on that thought. All objects have thought associated with them. If you come home from work really pissed off, you may be able to pick up on that anger when you get into your car come morning.

Most people aren't aware of the power of thought to subtly influence their mood. A good salesman can enter a room and immediately tell the mindset of the people he is trying to win over. Sometimes you can walk into a house and get a certain 'feel'. What you are perceiving are old thought forms hanging around. Once you get the idea that thought is attached to everything, you can become more in control of your own mind–set.

Right Brain vs. Left Brain Understanding

The intellect gets into trouble very quickly when it tries to figure out answers to ultimate questions like 'what is the origin of consciousness' or 'how was the universe created'. That is why we have gone through all of our gyrations concerning pure awareness and consciousness, in an attempt to explain things in terms that the intellect can understand. But really, all we have done is to argue ourselves around in a circle! If the thought of a pure potential created the universe, and consciousness itself is determined by thought –– for all physical incarnation is a conscious decision –– then we have just been splitting semantic hairs.

This is what usually happens when we depend upon the intellect alone to understand something. It has been the dilemma of philosophy and cosmology through the centuries. True understanding is a feeling of certainty, a knowing which comes from the intimate connection to that source of pure awareness within each one of us. This knowing is not possible for the intellect, which operates on data, and in an infinite universe the intellect can never gather enough data to make sense of concepts like 'eternal', 'universal consciousness', or 'pure potential'. These are only understandable from a right–brain orientation, from an appeal to the intuition.

Intuitive understanding is not less valid than intellectual understanding, it is just a different kind of understanding. It is a knowing of something, without knowing why or how. (Those who have had near–death experiences report that they reach a stage of pure knowing, without thought). Although this sort of knowledge does not help us in scientific or engineering projects (we would not want to hire a clairvoyant to build a bridge!) a right–brain understanding has been an important part of every new scientific breakthrough in history. Any good scientist will tell you that sometimes there is simply a leap of comprehension (aha!) which is impossible to document. Those who have the greatest wisdom in any area have reached a perfect balance between intellectual and intuitive understanding. In reading this book, I am asking the reader to consult his or her intuition along with the intellect. I am asking the reader to be aware of what he or she is feeling while digesting the concepts presented here, for that gut feeling is your inner knowing, it is your own personal guidance system and connection to your divine nature.

We have been distinguishing between a pure awareness and consciousness, because even if the universe were to fold up and die, and all space and matter and energy were to disappear, there would still be awareness! The awareness of love, joy, and bliss is always and eternally within every conscious being and is the creative impulse behind all life and all universes. There is no death of awareness! There is transition from broader to lesser awareness, in the process of incarnation, or the transition from lesser to broader awareness, in the process of death, but awareness never dies. In other words, there is never a death of the Spirit. If humanity understand this idea, our societies would operate in a much more rational and cooperative manner. Every person on earth is an immortal being, and there is no such thing as death, only a transition to a different state of awareness. The body is an adjunct to consciousness, intimately connected with it, but the body only dies when the consciousness associated with it decides to depart from it.

Recapitulation

Pure Awareness, filled with love, births a thought, creating something outside of itself

Pure Awareness now becomes conscious of what it has created.

And becomes aware of itself as a distinct identity.

Through thought a universe is created.

Consciousness is limited awareness through a point of perception.

Consciousness is able to experience the universe in different ways, from different points of view,

Leading to the development of unique personalities.

Next we come to identification. Identification is consciousness linking itself with what it has created. It says 'this is mine'. Whenever we are very proud of something we have created, we immediately want to show it off! We look at it as our baby. From Identification is born attachment. From attachment is born love. Pure Awareness, before the beginning, does not have the idea of anything other than itself. It is One. The first, utterly crucial step is differentiation. That comes with the First Thought. The First Thought creates something unique, a something, which can be differentiated as different from the thinker. As more something's are created by the thinker, each is discretely perceivable –– we say it is a quanta of energy –– and therefore has a unique identity and position in space and time (see footnote below).

Because the thinker /creator is responsible for what it has created, it can identify with everything it has created. What it has created is actually a little "piece" of itself, for every thought is conscious, and contains the life force energy of the thinker. So it is accurate not only to say that everything in the universe is connected, but also that everything in the universe is One. And, it is also accurate to say that everything in the universe has a separate identity or personality, for all things in existence are perceiving from their own unique points of view and levels of awareness. We have a universe where all is One, but at the same time, each element within it is unique unto itself. How good is that? Pretty damn good. It's genius. Identification proceeds from differentiation. First differentiation, THEN identification. There must first be something different from you to identify with!! Otherwise it is just you. There are legends of people who have grown up in forests and have never seen another human being. When this person sees another, there is a great confusion and awareness at the same time, an awareness that 'here I am, and over there is the other'. This is differentiation. If our forest fellow becomes friends with the stranger, we have the concept of identification.

Love

Each thought of the creator is pure, positive life force energy, because it comes forth from the creator. We can say, accurately, that the creator is love, and so all of the creations of the creator are also love. And since the energy of the creator fills the universe, the universe itself must also, quintessentially, be love. The creator is attached to all it's creations, like a loving parent with a newborn baby. The creator looks upon everything it has created, like the Bible says, and finds that it is good. The creator does not attach conditions to its love, for the creator of all is unlimited and infinite.

Love is the unlimited attachment of a creator to any (and all) of its creations. Love is an inherent property of awareness and consciousness itself. Pure Awareness, before the First Thought, always experienced itself as pure bliss (there was nothing around to get disgusted about). It had no reason to conceive of anything different from itself, because this blissful feeling is eternal, always utterly fulfilling, exciting, and never boring. That is why the First Thought is so important. To be in a state of utter perfection but be able to conceive of a state of affairs different from this wonderful existence is amazing. If you were completely fulfilled, never bored, always excited, would you ever want to create conditions different from that? Would you even be able to conceive of conditions different from that?

So love, joy, bliss, exhilaration, in other words, all positive feeling, is the default, inherent, quintessential state of all conscious beings. Only when we resist our basic natures can we perceive uncomfortably or negatively. Mankind has distorted the positive energy of the universe to create unnecessary dissatisfaction, pain, and misery. But it is also possible for each of us to use the powerful and infallible laws of the universe to create a life of joy and abundance.

So we say before the beginning there was love, and during the creation of the universe there was love, and all through time there is love, and after the ending there is love. Love is eternal, it can never go away, because it is the default way of experiencing. The creation of unique identities or personalities or points of view leads to an expansion of the love the creator feels for itself, for now it can look out into the beauty of the universe it has created! The creator is filled with an awesome sense of joy, of exhilaration, of the deepest, most profound, hugely expansive feeling of love as it sees and feels all of the wonder of the universe! All individual personalities are aspects of the creator. Universal consciousness is the combined awareness of all conscious beings everywhere (including you and me). All of us are important parts of the infinite vastness of the universe, which we helped bring into existence.

Have you ever been in a place of such sublime beauty that you felt like you couldn't contain all of the love that comes pouring forth from inside you? Or been in love with someone? It's a feeling of such awesome, expanding love and joy that it simply cannot be described. That is the feeling that the creator feels for all of its creations, which is the same thing as saying, the feeling that the creator feels for itself. Which is the same thing as saying, what all of us feel for ourselves and everything else when we are not blocking or resisting this feeling.

Back to Consciousness

Let's look at what we have so far:

L O V E –– inherent quality of all awareness – pervades all things, IS all things

Differentiation

Identification

Attachment

Love (for a unique, identifiable thing)

Pure Awareness > Quality (potential) (knowing) (pure being)

Consciousness –> Quantity (actual) (perception of existence)

Each level of consciousness is a level of awareness, depending upon the sophistication of construction of the body. A body is just a vehicle from which to perceive a certain portion of the universe. A higher consciousness means more perception of existence, so higher awareness of what is in existence. Consciousness is largely determined by the construction of the vehicle of perception. In other words, a beetle may perceive less of existence than a dolphin, but the experience of a beetle is just as fulfilling for the consciousness of the beetle as it is for the consciousness of the dolphin, experiencing as a dolphin. Awareness–through–consciousness is a sort of encapsulated awareness, in a shell of consciousness. But Pure Awareness courses through every individual consciousness, connecting all life everywhere!

We can see that there can be infinite levels of consciousness, each aware of a portion of all–that–is, depending upon the choice of what to experience. But there is only one Pure Awareness. So, we have a Oneness that is able to be aware of itself as One, because it IS all things that it has created. Pure Awareness can also perceive through the bodies it has created, and develop individual personalities.

A conscious being always knows, somewhere within it, that it is an aspect of Pure Awareness. So with some work –– at least in theory –– any conscious being on any level may discover the God–self. But the game is played so that each conscious being is designed only to be aware of a limited portion of the totality of existence. The great thing about this game is that individual beings grow, through experience, so that the sum of the "parts" becomes greater than the Whole.

Human beings are not puny, measly little things relegated to the armpit of the universe here on earth. Each and every one of us is a powerful and wonderful aspect of the creator, each endowed with the pure awareness of the creator as an inherent part of our divine nature. All life, all things in the universe are so endowed.

Individual Personalities

We can now say that there is ultimately only one awareness, and that all physical beings are extensions of that one awareness. It is through consciousness that Pure Awareness limits itself, and achieves differentiation. This is how Oneness can be the doll in the doll house it has built. This is how Oneness can walk inside the building it constructed from the erector set, or perceive through the eyes of a fly, or a whale, or through the human or the flower or the tree. In other words Pure Awareness, or universal consciousness, is not limited to any one aspect of itself, but can perceive through all. Imagine a guy who lived in a mansion and had a TV in every room. The cable company came out and wired all of his TV's together, and put boxes all over the place so he could dial up any channel on any TV he wanted. Let's say that these TV's are conscious and can not only receive signals, but look out through the screen. So the TV can perceive everything in the room it is in, and also tune in to any broadcast signal it desires. Universal consciousness is like the electricity that runs through the system –– it has instantaneous access to any TV, anytime. Individual personalities are like each of the TV's. The TV's can't function without the electricity –– otherwise, they are just lifeless hulks. Just like our bodies when the animating intelligence of our consciousness departs. And the electricity has no purpose unless it can perceive through each of the TV's. The electricity needs the TV's so it can have different experiences!

What is the difference between an individual incarnated personality, and non–corporeal personality? We can use the analogy of a board game. In the game called 'Risk' each player is assigned armies and the object is to take over the world. When playing this game, you might call yourself 'The Marauder' and at every opportunity, choose to initiate battles no matter what the odds. In the game, you are the feared aggressor who tries to quickly take everyone out. You identify with your men, and give them names and personalities. You are the general who coordinates everything and your only objective is to dominate and control the world! When the game is over, you become you again. Does your consciousness become subsumed, merging into some vast overmind? Of course not! You simply become YOU. During the time of playing, you are still you, but with a more focused beingness. When you transition out of the game, you become conscious again of a broader awareness. Both levels of consciousness are you.

The purpose of consciousness is to allow Pure Awareness to experience. Pure Awareness wants to be able not just to know itself on a theoretical basis, but to get involved in the nitty–gritty of life. As Oneness, it knows it is perfect; knows that it is, say, courageous, but as a human being in a physical body facing a guy with a gun, how are you going to react? Can you actually demonstrate courage in the face of danger? Can you walk the walk and not just talk the talk? And what is courage anyway? Is it insulting the guy and showing how macho you are, only to get yourself killed? Is it being composed and making the guy go away by the force of your presence? Is it beating the crap out of your tormentor and putting him in the hospital? Or is it just giving up your wallet quietly? There are probably a zillion different ways this scenario could play out, and consciousness wants to explore every one of them. By building bodies and living through them, consciousness gets to set up an infinity of different experiences. So individual personalities evolve, as consciousness moves through the universe thinking and experiencing. As each individual consciousness gains more experience, it becomes more and more self–defined, more and more individualistic. Each experience and your reaction to that experience helps you to define yourself, to know more about who you are.

Everything an individual consciousness experiences is unique to itself. Every experience helps to define and develop the personality of each being. This is a wonderful thing, for Oneness can now experience itself in more and more unique ways.

The Divine Impulse of Consciousness

A construction worker whose life consists of working, going to bars and participating in and watching sports will have a far different personality than a world famous musician who travels all over the planet. One might say that the musician is aware of a much broader world than the construction worker. This doesn't mean the musician is better, just that the levels of consciousness are different! Because consciousness can choose differently, it can re–structure itself, but only within the range of its own perception. By this I mean, whenever a conscious being thinks a thought, it alters its idea of itself. If a person decides that she is funny, that thought alters the idea she has of herself. This one idea, if followed up, may even lead to her to become a comedian.

Thought is extremely powerful. As the Buddha said: 'We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make our world'. The impulse to create is the first divine impulse of consciousness, born out of the first thought of the creator. Remember when the creator thought its first thought, there was an explosion of cognition, a tremendous blast of realization of the possibilities of existence. So the construction worker may wish to broaden his horizons a little. He decides, on his next vacation, to take a travel package to Europe. He experiences an opera, eats at a 4 star restaurant, takes a gondola, goes to the Louvre, sees Michelangelo's Pieta and the beautiful ceiling he painted at the Vatican. The musician may determine he is too one dimensional as well, and decides to start working out to improve his health. He takes a white water canoeing trip in Colorado, and learns karate. All of these impulses come from the same divine impulse that brought forth the First Thought –– the desire to create, to become MORE, to experience MORE. The desire to create is probably the most intense desire any conscious being has. It is built–in to consciousness itself, since consciousness proceeded from the desire of pure awareness to create and know itself in as many ways as it could.

First Principle

Within each of us is the pure awareness of our God self. This tells us that there is, within all of us, perfect understanding, perfect knowing, all encompassing love and connection to all things. I am calling this understanding, the First Principle. The First Principle states that pure awareness, universal consciousness, God, Supreme Being, whatever you want to call it, experiences itself in complete joy and bliss. The First Principle is the bedrock upon which the entire universe has been created, and it is the quintessential nature of all things in existence, including consciousness itself.

Properties of Consciousness

Consciousness can limit its perception. This is done through focusing. In the next chapter (referring to the book "The Vibrational Universe"), we will attempt to show how this is done. First there is a decision to BE, in a different way, in association with a body here on earth, for example. Then there is identification with the body, during the entire time the body is alive. So focusing of consciousness, or the limiting of awareness, is preceded conceptually by identification. How does this work?

First of all, let us briefly mention that consciousness does not come in lumps. In other words, there is not one rigidly separated consciousness assigned to each human, tree, bird, blade of grass, etc. That is because consciousness is non–physical! So there is a universal consciousness that is flowing into and out of all things in existence, as photons flow into and out of a beam of light, as electricity flows in and out of the TV's in our earlier example. Individual personalities exist, but each personality is a focused aspect, or extension, of universal consciousness. It appears to humans that we are all separate, because only the physical body is observable. We do not see the subtle but powerful influence of consciousness as it manipulates the world of matter and energy.

There are 6 billion people on earth approximately. The average life span is 65 years, which means that on average, there are 92 million human deaths every year on planet earth, about 3 every second. Dear reader, there are beings shuttling in and out of here at an astonishing rate! And that doesnt even count animals and insects. If you ask yourself the question, Who or what is managing the entry and exit of consciousness on planet earth? it leads to some mindblowing realizations.

We live in a universe of developed thought. The entire Reality is composed of many levels of perception, which we may call individual universes, that can be perceived depending upon what frequency range the sensors of consciousness are tuned into. To experience the reality on channel 7, for example, we must tune our TV sets to channel 7. If we want to see a different reality, we may tune into channel 2 and watch WWF wrestling, or to channel 28 to see a PBS program on the origin of the universe. We may also tune into channel 72 to see Emeril Lagasse prepare great food. Or perhaps, we can tune to channel 83 and see old reruns of Leave it to Beaver. There are many realities within the One Reality, and each is accessible depending upon where one's sensors of perception are tuned.

Universal Consciousness Focuses Into Separate Personalities

Focusing of consciousness occurs during incarnation. When consciousness focuses, it identifies more narrowly. For example, human consciousness associates with a human body. The human body has limited sensory equipment. Our eyes can only see electromagnetic radiation within a very narrow bandwidth, our ears can only hear within a certain range of vibration, etc. By focusing, consciousness limits its awareness to specific frequencies, but intensifies experience. An incarnated consciousness MUST be tuned to the same wavelengths as the body which it is inhabiting, otherwise it could not perceive or co–habit with the body at all! Therefore, when consciousness incarnates into a body, it must be tuned to perceive through the senses of the body. Focusing is how something eternal and immortal can experience Itself in an infinity of different (but temporary) environments. Death is an opportunity to end one experience and begin another. Just as you would not want to get up every day wearing the same clothes, drive the same car to the same office with the same people and do the same thing over and over again, so too would you not want to spend eternity in the same body on planet earth!

The focusing of consciousness can be likened to what happens when you take a magnifying glass out on a sunny day. The glass focuses some of the billions of photons into a beam of light which appears on the ground as a point of light. The beam of light is analogous to the stream of consciousness, or life force energy, which is flowing through us in every instant. Indeed, without the constant focusing of the beam by the magnifying glass, the energy of consciousness that runs the body would not be present, and the body would die. The point of light is analogous to individually incarnated (focused) consciousness, with its unique personality, associated with the body. The body itself is formed and maintained from the energy which is constantly streaming through it:

Figure 1. Photons continuously enter and exit the beam of light. There is a constant recycling of photons through the beam of light and to the point of light.

The point of light is a collection of photons and so is the light which surrounds it. The photons in the point are focused, those surrounding the point are more broadly dispersed. The surrounding light may be said to have a broader awareness, or a more expansive consciousness. Since the photons of light within the beam are constantly entering and exiting the beam, the light is in constant connection with itself. In other words, the beam of light can be likened to a constantly changing stream of consciousness. So there is always a connection to broader, universal consciousness, when a being incarnates into a body, even though it sometimes feels that we are completely alone. This, to me, is a very comforting thought! It tells us that we are always connected to the pure, positive source of life force energy which fills the universe.

Who is Holding the Magnifying Glass?

When a beam or a stream of light is focused into a point by a magnifying glass, someone must continuously maintain the glass in the right position, in order to keep the light focused. The same principle applies to the focusing of consciousness into bodies. A being must constantly choose to live positively in order to maintain a feeling of well being and health. As soon as a person decides it is no longer worth living, he or she will find a way out, whether this be through illness, an 'accident' or by simply leaving. Being human is a free will choice which must be made in every moment. The more we desire to live, the more excited and animated we are about life, and the more we decide life isn't worth it, the more apathetic we become. If you look at the scale of emotion/vibration, apathy is very near death.

Your decisions, in every moment, determine your experiences!

Incarnation

Why and how does the cell divide so accurately every time? Science says that DNA contains the 'code' for the cellular construction of the body, but this does not explain how the DNA code got there in the first place. It does not explain how the subatomic particles and the atoms that compose the DNA know how to arrange themselves into the atomic structure of DNA. Some intelligence had to program the sub– atomic particles to form the atoms that compose the cells, which know how to combine precisely the right way to form livers, hearts, stomachs, eyes and skin, for each and every life form on planet earth. We can look at the assertion that DNA is responsible for building the complex systems of the body the same way as a sophisticated computer controlled commercial airliner. At first glance we might say that the airplane guides itself from 20,000 feet in the air to its proper destination at the airport, until we consider the tremendous amount of intelligent design that went into the construction of the airplane's systems. Each component is manufactured from a design template, and there is a master template under which the aircraft is assembled.

DNA is itself the result of a template of thought. The animating intelligence behind DNA, behind all biology, is consciousness. The body breathes of itself. We do not control our breathing, usually. When we sleep, our bodies continue to breathe. Assigning the cause to "the body's autonomic system" merely places a descriptive label on top of something that is not understood. All matter and energy is composed of thought. Thought is life force energy. It all begins with the decision of consciousness to focus in a specific way. The consciousness of the beetle decides to experience in a certain way, as does a flower, a tree, a human. The body of each species is generated from a different template of design.

The human body is created through thought. Just as an airplane cannot come into being all at once, so too with biology. One assembles or grows the final product a little bit at a time. And both need regular maintenance! When the body/aircraft has outlived its usefulness, it goes into the grave/scrapheap. Thought is a vibration, has internal motion, can be perceived, is conscious. All things in the universe are ultimately composed of thought, which combine to form atoms, and molecules, and eventually the 'solid' matter of our perceivable universe. Since thought is conscious, there is agreement between individual particles to come together in a particular form or structure. As we said before, thought, on a universal scale, has evolved to the point where the construction of bodies, planets, suns, galaxies, etc. is well understood. There are blueprints virtual design templates for everything in the universe, all of which can be activated by thought. Just as the aircraft manufacturer refers to his aircraft designs, so too does consciousness outside the body refer to the virtual templates for building the human body. As human beings, we really do have to get over the idea that life can exist only associated with a body! We wouldn't want to say that the airplane 'dies' when it is no longer appropriate for it to continue to exist as an airplane, for the intelligence that created it lives on. Just so for the human body, or any life form.

The decision of consciousness to incarnate in a human body accesses the virtual templates associated with the building of cells, organs, and the overall construction of the human body. A general template for the construction of a human body exists, but each body is formed in a cooperative effort of an individual personality and the broader consciousness associated or connected with that personality. Every human body is unique, just as every apple is unique. In our beam of light example, we don't say that the point of light is separated from all of the light which surrounds it, even though it may appear to the individually focused personality that he or she is all alone. There is a broader consciousness that continually maintains the body, keeps it breathing and working internally, even when we are asleep or unaware. Science calls these processes autonomic. Autonomic is a label describing something (consciousness) that cannot be observed or measured.

In talking with a medical professional, I learned that although anatomy charts show the human organs in precisely defined positions, this varies, sometimes widely, from person to person. Each human body is unique and has characteristics which differ from person to person. The incarnating personality chooses, through thought, the particular properties of his or her body that best suit that person, and this continues throughout the life. Because the cells of the body are conscious, they are responsive to the changing thought of the incarnated personality. In other words, we have a seamless, interconnected stream of consciousness of the incarnating personality and the consciousness of the body. The body and the personality cannot be separated, for they are both, along with the broader consciousness of what has been called by some the 'Higher Self', aspects of a universal consciousness which is experiencing itself in an infinite number of ways. This is not to say that an individual personality is just a blob immersed in a higher consciousness! Each conscious personality is genuine and unique unto himself/herself.

So we are playing an interesting game, a game where universal awareness deliberately decides to focus itself into individual identities, in order to have more and more experiences. The process of cell division is mimicking the focusing of consciousness into different personalities. All physical activity is mirroring the decisions and activities of consciousness!

Because consciousness as a nonphysical creative principle is not recognized by science and rightly so, since the scientific method requires observation and measurement to determine validity there will always be a separation between science and metaphysics. In this discussion I have drawn from my personal impressions and my research. One thing I am utterly sure of, however: consciousness does survive the death of the body. Proof of this statement can only occur on an individual basis and must wait either for some sort of spiritual awakening such as a neardeath experience or a personal discovery of self or death. Even the most hardened skeptic will discover on his or her death bed, perhaps after a frightening and terrifying struggle, that death is in fact an awesome, beautiful return to an unimaginable joy, wellbeing and discovery of the true self.

A Short Diversion –– Superposition And Parallel Universes

Let us talk a little more about pure awareness and consciousness. What we have been describing is a pure quality, a universal awareness, which has the ability to create a universe and experience through every one of its creations. In order to do that it has to be able to be able to occupy the same space as every one of its creations. We know from physics that no two particles can occupy the same space at the same time, which is why we have a described the creator of the universe as a pure, massless potential. The idea of being able to occupy the same space at the same time has its physics counterpart in an idea called superposition. In physics, superposition of waves means that when 2 identical waves come together, each individual wave maintains its integrity and there is another wave formed from their interaction:

2 waves

come toward each other

and come together, creating a 3rd wave which is a combination of the two.

Figure 2. Superposition in physics. Both waves occupy the same space, but each maintains its integrity. A resulting wave comes forth from their interaction.

Our idea of superposition is a little different. Because pure awareness is a quality, it has no mass and in fact, can be considered to not exist in the universe at all! Pure awareness creates and maintains the universe, but is not IN it. Pure awareness has the ability to occupy every place in the universe all at once, because it is not bound by the restrictions of matter. So when pure awareness / God consciousness interacts with its creations, there is no resulting wave. In other words, pure awareness may perceive through any and all of its creations without influencing them in any way. Individual personalities everywhere in the universe have complete free will, but universal consciousness may experience through them at any time. This process can go the other way as well; each individual focused personality, while still in the body, may become aware of the broader, deeper, magnificent consciousness from which it comes forth!

The idea of superposition is exactly what Pure Awareness has the ability to do at any point in time or space. Pure Awareness has the ability to superpose itself over top of everything in existence; every thought, all energy, every object, every conscious being is accessible to it. This means that every conscious being, no matter how seemingly small and insignificant it may appear to humans, no matter how limited is the awareness designed into its sensors, may become aware of all–that–is. It also means that since the most fundamental and inherent characteristic of Pure Awareness is love and bliss, that all things in existence should be experiencing love and bliss! Certainly, that is the default way to experience; which can only be altered by a conscious decision to do so. Anyone who has ever truly experienced the energy of life will tell you this unequivocally. Anyone who has ever felt a rush of love or pure joy has experienced, unadulterated, life force energy. It is inherently blissful, and it is the experience every single one of us will have when we make our transition out of the body and into our broader awareness.

Awareness Can Never Be Destroyed

Pure Awareness is that wonderful feeling of love and bliss that is eternally present within us, and that is who we are at our very core. It is something that cannot be destroyed, ever, because it is not matter or energy. That's why the idea of a pure creative potential is so important. As we said before, even if all of the matter and energy in the entire universe was annihilated, the awareness which created it (you and me) would still live on. When I finally understood this idea, world events became something much less worrisome for me!

Consciousness has the ability to focus and unfocus and so become more or less aware of all–that–is. This happens all the time in life. People die and are born every day. All that is happening is a focusing of consciousness (birth) and an unfocusing (death of the body) of consciousness. In fact, all life on planet earth is in a continual state of flux; as consciousness enters and exits various vehicles of perception (bodies), in their billions. If we could actually see this process occurring from a position above the earth, we would see constant vortexes of consciousness forming and unforming, in a vast, elegant, and dynamic tapestry. It is the dance of life, and it is glorious! Once you understand that there is no death, the constant exposure of consciousness to the physical format and its subsequent release seems like a very wonderful thing.

Concluding Thoughts

We have touched on many esoteric concepts, but the purpose for doing so is to build a framework of discussion. We needed to start at the very beginning! We needed to look at the nature of consciousness itself and learn that it is positive, not negative. We needed to understand that it is consciousness that creates matter and energy, not the other way round. We needed to understand that the energy of life is positive, not negative, and that the intent for experiencing in the universe is a positive one. We needed to understand that infinite space is not cold, heartless and empty, but is filled with the energy of consciousness itself. And why do we need to do that?

Because thoughts and beliefs determine actions. A cursory look around our planet shows that mankind has built his societies around the ideas of scarcity, competition and conflict. We need to change those self–limiting and self–defeating ideas into something more consonant with mankind's true nature. And when we do that, our planet has a chance to become the paradise it should be.

Exercises

Think some negative thoughts and notice the emotional response that comes forth from within. Now think some positive thoughts and notice your emotional response.

Tell yourself that you only go around once in life, and that when your body dies, you are dead. Notice how you feel. Now tell yourself that you are an eternal, joyous, wonderful being. Notice how you feel.

Take a walk outside and just observe. Try to determine whether well–being, randomness, or negativeness, is the dominant characteristic of the world around you.

________________

*"Science and Spirituality" published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, India. ISBN no.81–7276–267–4

Copyright 1999 by Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

** We have speculated that the basic unit or quanta of energy in the universe is thought. We might liken a thought to a particle like the photon, which has no mass, but non–zero momentum, given in physics by hv / c, where c is the speed of light, v is the frequency of the photon, and h is Planck's constant, referred to in the physics literature as the fundamental constant of nature.

Or perhaps, a thought may be considered as having just the tiniest bit of mass, something so tiny that it can be regarded as virtual. Regardless, a thought, like a photon, has existence. Even though it has no mass, a photon is the basic unit (quantum) of electromagnetic radiation (light), and we can perceive it with our eyes (well, maybe not an individual photon, but a whole bunch of them) and even measure it with instruments. In this way we sort of disingenuously get around the idea of something from nothing, for a thought is so ephemeral it can be considered to be (al–most!) a pure potential.

We can reason like physicists and mathematicians sometimes do. They will look at the math and say, our calculations show that black holes are required in order for our theory and experimental evidence to be congruent. And so they will advance the idea of black holes, not because anyone has ever seen one before, but just because it seems to fit.

In this spirit (although this is purely speculative, with no math to back it up) we can say that a thought is a mapping between consciousness and the physical universe. We can define a virtual function f, which maps a thought ? into the physical universe. We can write f(?) > q. Since both f and ? are virtual and unobservable, we cannot define precisely how this is done. We say simply that the virtual function f operates on a virtual thought ?, translating it into a recognizable physical quantum, q.

q must, by definition, have both the properties of a particle and a wave, for the following reasons: q is alive, therefore it is internally in motion. All things in existence are in motion, this is a simple conclusion from the fact that all things are composed of subatomic particles and all subatomic particles are in motion within themselves. Therefore q has the property of a vibration, or a wave.

q, by definition, must be discrete. Q is discrete because it exists. Q occu–ies a unique point in space and it was created at a unique moment in time. Therefore it has identity and is distinguishable from other quanta. Discreteness is a simple fact of the definition of existence. If q were not discrete, it would be something else, and therefore not q. In other words, for a thing to have physical existence at all it must have a unique space for it to exist in, for nothing physical can occupy exactly the same space at exactly the same time as another physically identifiable thing. In physics this is known as the principle of complementarity and is the basis of Heisenbergs uncertainty principle.

Wave (vibration) / particle is the fundamental duality of physical existence. In order to have a physical universe at all, duality is a requirement. However, duality is contradictory, because it is clear that all quanta are the same (isotropic), yet in order to have existence, they must somehow be different.

That is why geometry is the most fundamental subject in the universe, for there is no difference in the energy of an electron and that of a proton. An atom of iron and an atom of copper are not different because they are composed of copper energy and iron energy. They are different because the geometry of their elements (atoms) combines in different ways.

Comments:

Consciousness is a static, something with no mass and no moving parts. A static, in other words, is a pure potential and cannot, by definition, have movement. Therefore consciousness, in its native state, is not IN the universe at all. Consciousness is the creative principle; by definition it has the ability to create a something from a nothing.

The function f, speaking in computer language, returns a quanta q from the virtual realm of consciousness; q is therefore conscious. We can say that q, along with all other quanta created by consciousness, is simply an aspect of the same energy, which is isotropic (the same every–where) because all quanta are the creations of consciousness.

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